He seems to have had landholdings on, or some other connection with, the island of Aigina, a connection that detractors and enemies exploited early in his career in an attempt to call his Athenian citizenship into question. He was twice prosecuted by a fellow demesman, the popular politician Kleon, for the political impropriety of two of his plays (
Babylonians, 426, and
Knights, 424), but he was not convicted. Early in the fourth century
B.C. he represented his tribe in the prestigious government position of councillor. Four comic poets of the fourth century - Araros, Philetairos, Philippos, and Nikostratos - are reputed in ancient sources to be his sons.
In the dialogue Symposion Plato portrays Aristophanes as being at home among the social and intellectual elite of Athens, and although the historical veracity of Plato's portrayal is uncertain, Aristophanes' plays generally espouse the social, moral, and political sentiments of contemporary upper-class conservatives: nostalgia for the days of the early democracy; dismay at the decadence, corruption, and political divisiveness of the present day; hostility toward the new breed of popular leaders who emerged after the death of the aristocratic Pericles in 429; and impatience with the leadership and slow progress of the Peloponnesian War (431-404).
